Todd, Tim and Kellan Cook love Baseball, the Seattle Mariners and trekking around the country to visit stadiums and watch games. These are their stories. #FatherSonBaseball

Spring Training V: Family Photos

In the fifth installment of our series of Spring Training updates, we’ve assembled our favorite family photos from Spring Training. These are photos taken while the Mariners were practicing, but they focus on one or more members of our family (mostly Tim) and show a different perspective on the Spring Training experience.

Here is one of our first pictures from Spring Training 2011:

I asked Tim to point at the sign and his expression is priceless. I think this face means, “Hurry up, I want to run in there and see the Mariners!”

By the way, here is a closer look at the map of the Peoria Sports Complex:

In the picture of Tim pointing at the sign, he is standing at the “M” (inside a diamond) just below and to the left of practice field M3. If you follow the walkway from that “M” straight up the map, you will reach a circle with a blue box inside it (between M3, M6 and M2). That circle/blue box is a concession stand and restrooms. The lines running left and right from the concession stand/restrooms are cement walkways that run down the middle of large strips of grass. The grass and walkways run all the way from a fence that connects M1 and M7 (right around the infield dirt of both fields) to another fence that connects M3 and M4 (also right around the infield dirt of both fields). All of that grass area is open to the public during Mariners workouts.

Pretty much the first thing we’d do each day (assuming the Mariners weren’t out on the fields already) was head to the grass between the player parking lot at M2.

The grass areas are perfect for playing catch with you father or your son (or both). As everyone else waited down by the player entrance, this is where we set up for some catch:FYI, that building down there on the left is the indoor batting cages.

Tim has got a lot better at catching and throwing over the last 6 months. His catching improved dramatically when we got him a smaller glove that he can actually close! Here, he fields a grounder:

In this picture, my mom captured both of us right as Tim catches the ball:

I can’t believe how big this guy is now-a-days:.

He looks like a real ballplayer, eh?

Sometimes Tim’s throws are perfect. Other times, he throws like Rick Ankiel at the end of his pitching career. Thus, I have to be ready for anything when he uncorks a hard throw:

As the Mariners head out to on in from M3-M6 before or after a work out, its an ideal time to get up and close for your favorite players. Here, my mom got some shots of Mariners walking by and giving Tim “five” as they headed out to M3:

The ideal place for fans to take some BP of their own at Mariners Spring Training is down the LF line of practice field M6, using the bullpen fence as a backstop:

That is sort of a hard picture to understand. Tim has already hit the ball and it is heading toward the SS side of second base.

M6 seems to get the least action…or at least the fewest spectators…so its a nice place to hit without having to worry about other fans getting in the way.

Here are two great pictures Colleen took of Kellan watching Tim pitch to my mom as I play the field:

Kellan missed the first day of Spring Training workouts because the rain was threatening, the wind was gusting, and he was tired. So he made his debut at Spring Training the next day, and this was his first picture “watching” the M’s prepare for the 2011 season:

That’s pitcher fielding practice on M4, by the way.

There are a bunch of bushes and small trees between M4 and M5. Here, Tim climbs in a tree (with M4 behind him):

Colleen snapped a great shot of Kellan and me watching batting practice on M1:

WIth seven practice fields and 60+ players running around from field-to-field plus getting to play catch and hit with your family members, there is a lot going on at Spring Training. Tim couldn’t stay put in one place for too long. He had to go, go, go:

My mom got these funny shots of Tim and my dad monkeying around on the bleachers while watching fielding practice on M2:

Here is another funny shot of Tim pointing…this time at Ichiro (his arm is extended directly behind him so you can’t see it at all, but he is, indeed, pointing at Ichiro):

Here’s another shot of Kellan and his Grandma — this time in the grass between M3 and M6:

One day, Tim took some BP between M4 and M5. In this picture, Colleen catches Tim swinging through a pitch:

The walkway from the parking lot to the practice fields (running behind the CF-to-RF wall of M3) is all rocks, gravel and plants. Tim loved playing in the rocks and gravel:

In the picture above to the right, Miguel Olivo is trying to shake Tim’s hand, but Tim has a handful of rocks. Instead of shaking Miguel’s hand, Tim opened his palm and showed Olivo the rocks he had collected beyond the M3 RF wall.

One day, Colleen fed Kellan a bottle while sitting on a little stone wall that circles the concession stand. Tim took a break from his own BP and ran over to his mommy and spelled his name in the gravel:

Here is a nice picture Colleen snapped of Kellan and his grandma sitting in the bleachers at M6:

That day, Tim snapped a ton of pictures as we cylced through M3, M4, M5 and M6. Here is a picture that one of us snapped of Tim snapping a picture of Luke French:

The picture above to the right is the actual picture of Luke French that Tim is taking in the picture above to the left. I thought that this was funny because right before taking this picture, Tim said to me, “Look, daddy, its the number of Christmas!”

Tim did most of the batting when we took BP beside M6. But my mom and I took a few hacks too. Here is a hilarious picture of Tim throwing at his grandma:

Shortly after the last picture, a bunch of Mariners outfielders started warming up down the M6 LF line just on the other side of the fence from out little BP site. We took a break from BP to watch the guys play catch. When Greg Halman caught the last ball thrown by his partner, I called out, “Hey, Greg!” He turned around and I pointed down to Tim. About 5-10 seconds later, I took this picture of Tim:

Thanks, Greg!

While Tim was pitching to my mom, I took a long range photo across the grassy area of Colleen and Kellan watching some pitchers warm up:

A little bit later, I took one of my favorite photos of Spring Training:

An 8″ x10″ of this photo now hangs in my office at work.

One last fun family photo for this entry:

Tim loves trying to push these big baseballs — click here for proof. As for Kellan, he might have had a little help (hidden mostly behind the baseball) sitting up on top of that big baseball for this picture.

As I think these pictures show, the lazy days hanging around the Mariners Spring Training workouts at Spring Training are great.

4 Comments

Awesome blog so far! I was saving money to do the Mariners Fantasy camp next year but I guess Ill have to do a Spring Training vacation instead. It looks like so much fun, and you can really get close to the players.

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